“It took eight years, so don’t give up, Tim,” she said while sharing a conference call with the former Montreal Expos star on Thursday.

Tom Cheek, the legendary Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster, and Raines are among a five-man class set for induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame this summer. The other inductees are former Blue Jay slugger George Bell, former Blue Jay and Expo Rob Ducey and Vancouver baseball pioneer Nat Bailey.

A .294 hitter with 808 stolen bases over his 23-year career, Raines has been on the Cooperstown ballot for six years. Each year, he has collected more votes, but his 2013 total of 52% left him well short of the magic 75% plateau.

“I keep hoping that one day it will finally happen,” he said. “If not, I’m a Canadian hall of famer now. I feel pretty good about that.”

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Shirley Cheek is feeling pretty good too. She will represent Tom, who died in 2005, at the Canadian induction ceremony June 29 in St. Marys, Ont. A month later, she will do the honours again when he enters the broadcasters’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Raines said he felt “a lot of jubilation” when he got the news from the Canadian hall, calling it “the highest honour I’ve gotten since I’ve played professional baseball.”

Both he and Cheek made their big-league debuts in Montreal. Cheek was a fill-in announcer for Expos games for three years before joining the Jays for their inaugural season in 1977. Raines spent his first 13 seasons as an Expo, batting .301, posting a .391 on-base percentage and stealing 635 bases. For six straight seasons, he stole 70 or more.

As support for Raines’ Cooperstown bid has mounted, he has often been compared to Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock, two famed leadoff men who were elected on their first ballot. Raines compares more favourably to Brock, having surpassed the Cardinals’ star in stolen bases, OBP, OPS, home runs and walk-to-strikeout ratio. (Raines had 1,330 walks and 966 strikeouts.)

I keep hoping that one day it will finally happen. If not, I’m a Canadian hall of famer now. I feel pretty good about that

Raines and Henderson shared a stage in the same era, but played most of their careers in different countries. Henderson, the all-time leader in steals and runs scored, also played in almost twice as many postseason games as Raines did.

“I never tried to compare myself to [Henderson],” he said. “He’s in the hall of fame. I hope they can continue to compare us because if he’s in, maybe I have a chance to get in as well.”

He holds fond memories of his years in Montreal – “I actually felt like I was part of Canada during those times” – and still has close ties to the country, since his wife is from Ottawa. Stressing the cross-border connection, he added: “I have twin girls that are half American and half Canadian.”

Raines also is going to work this year for Canada’s lone remaining big-club. He will serve as the Blue Jays’ roving minor-league instructor in baserunning and outfield play.

He clearly feels he belongs in Cooperstown, and is encouraged by his increasing vote support. But with a slew of former stars on next year’s ballot and the steroid-era debate, he also knows it is difficult to forecast how he will fare.

“The baseball hall of fame is probably the toughest hall to get in,” he said. “It’s a different animal compared to all the other major sports. As you know, this year there wasn’t one player that was inducted so it’s hard to predict what the sportswriters are thinking nowadays, now that you have the steroid era. And a lot of great players that might, or should have, gotten in on their first ballot didn’t get in.”

Does he support the election of such players as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens?

“If you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that these guys did use steroids or whatever, then no,” he said. “But it hasn’t been proven. If nothing has been proven, then those guys should be in.”